The zombie has long been one of the most popular monsters in horror movie history, but only a few zombie films have come to define the genre. Though they have changed quite a bit since they first ambled onscreen in the early days of cinema, zombies continue to be a compelling horror movie antagonist.

From their earliest days as victims of voodoo curses, to the more modern interpretations which often involved faster monsters, zombies evolve with each new generation. Like any great movie monster, the zombie has needed to be periodically refreshed from time to time, and the lore behind them has also been altered.

Legendary filmmakers like George Romero put their stamp on the genre, creating the style and tone of what a modern zombie film should look like. More recent filmmakers have found ways to make the zombie even more terrifying in the 21st century, while others have brilliantly spoofed the well-worn tropes of zombie media.

While there have been plenty of great zombie movies, only a few have left a mark on the fabric of the genre itself. They’ve reinvented the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ and made them an evolving source of fear on the big screen. Even if they aren’t the best zombie flicks, some are so influential that they deserve a place in horror history.

8

White Zombie (1932)

Bela Lugosi Stars In An Early Zombie Film

1932’s White Zombie is generally considered the first feature-length zombie film, but its zombies are almost nothing like modern versions. The film stars Bela Lugosi as a voodoo pracтιтioner who turns an unsuspecting young woman into a zombie. As expected, the movie features voodoo zombies, which are not unᴅᴇᴀᴅ monsters, but people who have been brought under their master’s sway.

As the first zombie movie, White Zombie gets a pᴀss for a lot of its shortcomings, and it was released right around the time that sound movies were becoming popular. Though future films would improve upon its ideas, White Zombie deserves a lot of credit for helping to launch the cinematic genre.

7

I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

Jacques Tourneur’s Hypnotic Horror Film

Director Jacques Tourneur was one of the most creative horror filmmakers of the 1940s, and his film I Walked with a Zombie put a punctuation mark on the original era of zombie films. Once again set in the Caribbean, the film follows a nurse who is trying to cure her patient’s mystery illness, while being tormented by voodoo and zombies.

Like White Zombie, I Walked with a Zombie is not about reanimated corpses, but instead involves a classic voodoo curse. However, the latter film improves mightily on the atmosphere, and Tourneur’s visuals tell the story as much as the dialogue. The movie’s zombie is one of cinema’s best, and it is one of the most frightening ’40s horror films.

6

Night Of The Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1968)

George Romero Invents The Modern Zombie Film

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of George Romero’s 1968 film, Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, and no other movie had such a profound impact on zombie cinema. Before the low-budget classic, zombies were the product of hypnotism or voodoo curses, but Romero reimagined them as violent flesh-eaters who were brought back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

The concept of the movie is quite simple, with a group of strangers finding themselves hiding in a farmhouse as hordes of unᴅᴇᴀᴅ zombies descend upon them. However, the real brilliance of Romero’s zombie vision was that the monsters themselves were only peripherally important to the story.

Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ broke new ground by featuring a Black man in the lead role, something unknown in horror at the time, but it also changed the way the zombie story was told. The film becomes a platform for interpersonal drama, and Romero’s true trademark is that the human characters often doom themselves because of their own shortcomings.

5

Dawn Of The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1978)

George Romero Does It Again 10 Years Later

A decade after he kicked off the modern zombie trend with Night of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, George Romero returned to deliver his bitingly satirical zombie flick, Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Bringing the flesh-eating monsters into the dour 1970s, Romero brilliantly found a new way to improve upon the genre while still staying true to his original vision.

Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ is faster-paced and much more violent, though the core of the story still centers around a group of survivors who are trying to make it through the impending zombie apocalypse. This time, the heroes are in a shopping mall, and the movie doesn’t miss an opportunity to have some witty commentary about consumerism.

Just like in Night, Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ‘s big climax is brought about by human error, and the human characters once again prove to be the real villains all along. The 1978 gem spawned a legion of imitators, just like its predecessor, but few could deliver the same quality because they didn’t have Romero’s eye for social commentary.

4

The Return Of The Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (1985)

Zombies Acquire A Taste For Brains

A few decades after the “Romero Zombie” first hit screens, 1985’s The Return of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ was the first movie to try something new. Infused with punk rock energy, the horror comedy made zombies scarier and funnier at the same time by adding some frightening new wrinkles to their lore.

After two bumbling warehouse workers accidentally unleash a gas that turns corpses into zombies, a group of young punks must fight to survive. Return‘s zombies aren’t the shuffling unᴅᴇᴀᴅ of George Romero, but are instead goopy monstrosities that are capable of thinking. Furthermore, the zombies can’t be killed, even when their brains are destroyed.

Speaking of brains, The Return of the Living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ is responsible for popularizing the concept that zombies eat brains instead of just flesh. It makes the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ monsters the real threat, which is distinctly different from Romero’s concept. Though later films wouldn’t be as funny, Return helped to make zombies scary again.

3

28 Days Later (2002)

A Zombie Movie For The New Millennium

As one millennium gave way to the next, the Danny Boyle film 28 Days Later arrived to be the first truly original zombie flick of the 2000s. The British horror film didn’t just rely on the old tropes of Romero, but instead reimagined zombies as creatures of unbridled rage brought on by a virus created by misguided scientists.

Using London as its backdrop, the film follows survivors as they try to get to safety while they are attacked by increasingly large groups of raging zombie monsters. The film features a loose, almost documentary-like filmmaking style, which makes it all the more realistic and terrifying. What’s more, the zombies themselves are much more active.

The so-called fast zombie era began in earnest with 28 Days Later, and the ambling monsters of the past were thrown out in favor of creatures that could run. Despite that, the movie still has a lot to say about humanity, and examines how human decency breaks down in the face of societal collapse.

2

Shaun Of The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (2004)

Every Great Genre Needs Its Spoof

By 2004, the modern zombie era had been going for nearly 40 years, and Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ arrived to properly spoof it for the first time. Hatched from the brilliant minds of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the film is both a hilarious satire and a loving tribute to the zombie movie genre.

Simon Pegg stars as the тιтle character, a 30-something slacker who suddenly finds himself thrust into the role of hero when a zombie outbreak overruns his London suburb. Deftly blending slacker humor with Wright and Pegg’s signature brand of irreverent comedy, Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ is perfect for zombie fans and those who just like a good laugh.

It features the slow-moving zombies of earlier films, which makes Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ feel a lot like a send-off to the classic era. Most zombie films released after 2004 put some sort of new spin on the unᴅᴇᴀᴅ, so the horror comedy can be considered the end of an era.

1

Train To Busan (2016)

A Modern Zombie Film With Classic Appeal

By the 2010s, the zombie genre had been thoroughly oversaturated thanks to franchises like The Walking ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, but a surprising film arrived from South Korea that proved the zombie still had staying power. Train to Busan appears to be yet another zombie film on its surface, but it’s so much more than a rehash.

A workaholic father decides it’s time to reconnect with his young daughter before they begin to drift apart. Unfortunately for the duo, their father/daughter time is interrupted by a zombie outbreak. Set largely aboard a train, the movie pits the disparate survivors against their fast-moving zombie adversaries and against one another.

Train to Busan criticized the stark divisions within Korean society, and almost every walk of life is represented by the survivors on the train. Not trying to reinvent the wheel, the zombie hit delivers classic horror movie scares with a compelling narrative about its human characters.